Here's a free demo for upcoming survival crafting, monster-battling, town-builder Tinkerlands

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Fans of games like Terraria and Necesse might want to take a look at an upcoming top-down survival crafting game called Tinkerlands, which just recently released a free prologue—Tinkerlands: A Shipwrecked Adventure—on Steam. The demo lets you explore an open world island, encountering some cool biomes and building up stuff to check out.

As you explore the island you're wrecked on to save your lost captain, you'll be able to get new treasures to make yourself stronger and better able to fight the monsters you find. Eventually you can even build a little town for fellow survivors to hole up in.

There's also a couple interesting optional mechanics. You're normally in need of new materials to craft up buildings and gear, as well as improve ytour own adventuring skills, but you can mess with two other systems. There's magic, which is powerful and can help you fight more easily, and there are potions to give you a bit of a boost in the toughest battles. Neither felt totally necessarry to playing the game, but did give a bit of an alternate way to enjoy yourself.

I spent some time with the demo, and I think that fans of the genre as a whole, the kind that are always hungering for more, should check it out—but if you really only like one specific game you might not find too much new to love here.

Tinkerlands is developed by CodeManu and Endless Coffee, and it's published by HypeTrain Digital.

You can find Tinkerlands: A Shipwrecked Adventure for free on Steam, where you can also find a store page for Tinkerlands proper.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.